Giving liberates the soul of the Giver....

I saw a business posting about an organization that gives loans to individuals across the world and they look for people to lend them these individuals or groups the money by lending as little as $25 or lending the entire amount of the loan. The local business said they have loaned out nine loans, six were paid in full and three are making payments, but I found the idea fascinating. These individuals or groups may not have the means necessary to obtain a traditional loan, but through the help of other individuals can pursue a goal or dream.
So, I made my first loan - it was $25, but hopefully with time, I can increase that amount. And the man was located in Peru, I selected him mainly because he was only $100 away from his goal of $880 and he only had two days left to reach it and within an hour, I got an email indicating he reached his goal with the help of 20 individuals across the world.
Mother Theresa said once, that if you can't feed the world, feed one and I felt like as much as I'd like to help hundreds of people, I can't, but I helped one and it felt good to know he reached his goal.
The organization is called Kiva and I hope you check it out. There are times when we are up and there are the times when we are down, so when I have the opportunity to help, I try. I can't explain the feeling, but I feel like when I give, somehow I'm making a small difference as cliche' as it is.

"Generosity is not giving me that which I need more than you do, but it is giving me that which you need more than I do." Khalil Gibran

Happy Kidney Day

I woke a little early today, took the dogs out and drank a cup of tea in the backyard. As I was sitting there, I could see the sun rising, it was a bit cloudy, but the sun was bursting through some of the clouds and it was still quite remarkable to watch. I put my feet in the grass still fresh with morning dew and enjoyed the stillness of the moment that with each rising of the sun, brings the promise of a new day, new beginning, a new journey.

And so I said a quiet blessing reflecting that today marks two years since I donated my kidney to my mom and considering how things got started after the surgery, two years is grand! So Happy Kidney day to my mother, I'm blessed to have her here!

We easily get caught up in wishing minutes or hours would pass so we can get through another day, yet infrequently stop to realize what we are wishing away and then when it's gone do we regret what we've lost. We are all guilty of this and sometimes it is hard to break the pattern, but take the time to stop and enjoy what's been presented to you today, even though there is tomorrow, there is no guarantee.

"My mother gave me life and never once asked for anything in return. That is her secret you know, always giving without expectations. She helps me find my way through the years and makes me laugh while doing it - there are some things that only a mother can do"

"Time is the most undefinable yet paradoxical of things; the past is gone, the future is not come, and the present becomes the past even while we attempt to define it, and, like the flash of lightning, at once exists and expires." ~Charles Caleb Colton

Bedtime Giggles.....

We were doing our typical bedtime routine and reading stories, tonight it was Curious George: The Kite and Olivia forms a band.
As we were reading, the second story, Olivia forms a band, we turned the page and all of us started laughing and we couldn't stop. I know the photo spurred the laughter, but then continued laughing and laughing and as I tried to contain my composure to finish the book, we would continue to giggle.

Then my sweet pea said, "was that part of the book about us...."

I laughed even harder when she said that and said, "well maybe" and the reason why is because on the next page the mom states, "Wipe that glop off your face, young lady, and get in the car NOW!"

So, that is what my sweetpea was referring too....me telling her to wipe that crap off her face whenever she puts it on. Well on the brighter side, at least I know now that she is not the only Olivia who does it.

"Only five books tonight, Mommy," she says. No, Olivia, just one." How about four?" Two." Three." Oh, all right, three. But that's it!" — Ian Falconer (Olivia)

Does the happily ever after exist.....

How often did you grow up hearing stories of fairytales or read them? I loved reading them and getting lost in the stories, sometimes pretending I was Little Red Riding Hood or when I would play outside I would pretend that I could speak with the animals and I would be Snow White, at some time we all want to believe that we are a princess and marry a prince, but as I grew older I realized that those stories like movies were fantasy and I surely wasn't a princess, so alas where did that leave my prince?
My interests and goals changed, I traded my fairytales for Jane Austin, Anne Rice, Toni Morrison, and Maya Angelou, Virginia Wolfe, Walt Whitman, and not to mention the many school books that I studied.
My world got bigger and complicated, of course heartbreaks and the tears that followed; wondering where was my fairy godmother?

And then one day, out of the blue and unexpected I met my man, he wasn't a prince by any means, but he did something no other man could do, he tore down my brick wall that I had built around myself and captured my heart. And I knew from the moment I met him, that I was going to marry that man.....and eventually I did.
Has it been happily ever after, of course not, this isn't a movie, but do I feel like like my fairytale has come true? Indeed...in fact, if you were to look on my checks there is a saying, "fairytales do come true." It may not be with glitz, sparkles, or a rescue from a tower, but I feel like it.
I wasn't looking to get married, I wasn't looking to have a family, I was focused on me and then unexpectedly some random guy comes along and completely changes my life, but do I believe that marriage and kids is the key to a happily ever after? No, what I do think the key to finding your happily ever after is what you define as your fairytale.
If you've been dreaming of Mr. Right, your 2.5 kids and your house with the picket fence all your life and it still hasn't happened, if you are happy who cares, but if you are are not happy because you don't have those things, perhaps you need to change your focus or your idea of what a fairytale is....for me it didn't matter about the pretty princess finding love, my favorite part about a fairytale was trying to discover the lesson in the tale; that good overcomes bad.

And of course, in life we don't always have a happy endings, but I figure if I am 98% of the time happy, then by all means I've reached my happily ever after.
Don't spend your life focusing on all the things you don't have, focus on the things that make you happy and then you'll find your happily ever after.

"If you happen to read fairy tales, you will observe that one idea runs from one end of them to the other--the idea that peace and happiness can only exist on some condition. This idea, which is the core of ethics, is the core of the nursery-tales." - G.K. Chesterton

"If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales." - Albert Einstein

Favorite Words

So this morning we are getting ready for our day and my sweet pea has a new affliction for words. So, I casually ask her what her favorite word is.....she thinks and says, "can I have two?" I nod and she says, "diamond" and "family," so I'm thinking those are two very different words and ask her why are those your favorites. And she says, "I like the way "diamond" sounds and the shape and it's a mineral (okay, Ms. Science?!)
So, then of course I have to ask my little man, who is patiently waiting for his sister to finish, so he can say loud and proud, "din-o-saur" and before I can even ask why, he says, "I like it because it's just cool."

And what surprised me the most is that I would never have guessed those words to be their favorite words, had someone ask me this, I would have said something like "princess" and "superhero," so I guess after all their worlds are more than just what they surround themselves with.

Of course, they asked me and so I told them, which is "magnanimous" and before I could tell them why, my little man, says, "why is it because it is a long word?" and I said, no I like the way it sounds and then I gave them the meaning of the word.

Magnanimous - showing a couragous spirit and/or generous in forgiving

What are some of your favorite words?

"In a serious struggle there is no worse cruelty than to be magnanimous at an inopportune time." - Leon Trotsky

"We all have a dinosaur deep within us just trying to get out." - Colin Mochrie

"I loved being outside. We'd hold lightning bugs in our fingers and pretend they were diamond rings." - Loretta Lynn

Never have expectations......

Life lesson, never have expectations and you will never be disappointed with how things turn out. It sounds simple enough right? Hopefully, I can start practicing it. My mistake is I hold people to the same expectations that I hold myself and thus disappointed when things don't go the way I anticipated.

"A woman's heart should be so hidden in God that a man has to seek Him just to find her." - Maya Angelou

My Brave Little Sweet Pea

Today my little sweet pea had her tonsils and adenoids out. She was such a brave girl, we tried to talk about it once we found out that she needed them removed, but she wouldn't. Then last night, she said she was frighten and so we talked about her concerns and she seemed better. She asked if she would have visitors come over and I said I'm sure you will.
This morning, she was simply quite and remained that way the entire time. The surgery didn't take that long, approximately 30 minutes and then onto recovery, where she sat as I rubbed her little feet.
When they came to get her, I started to cry a bit, not that I was afraid, but I definitely would have traded places with her if I could have, I hate seeing my children upset or in pain, but I quickly stopped as I didn't want her to see me get upset. She was sick a couple times prior to us leaving and has been a few more times since we've been home, but overall, she is taking in liquids and resting. We haven't seen any tears, she is just being our brave little girl and I'm so proud of her!
She was excited when I walked in the room holding flowers that my sister had brought for her. She knew exactly who they were from without even reading the card and my sister didn't have to do it, especially considering we had a falling out a couple months ago.
My little man has been a big helper, watching over his sister and when we were eating dinner, she rang her bell and he said, "don't worry I'll get this one." I've got two of the best kids ever!

"Children make you want to start life over." Muhammad Ali